"How did we get to be in this mess?", perplexed people often ponder. When did we choose this life? How did it get to a point that I couldn’t sleep at night? What happened that made me afraid to pick up a phone? When did things get this bad?
Drowning in a sea of debt is a conscientious decision few have made. The flaw of many was simply thinking only about today.
Margaret Atwood in her book Payback: The Shadow Side of Wealth rightfully remarks, “a story is a string of actions occurring over time.” Often we would not have selected our current status, but one, two, or a hundred poor decisions along the way have led to a mess.
Perhaps you are a young person who has yet to script much of your story. Or perhaps even you are an older person who so far has been fortunate enough to avoid large amounts of consumer debt. It might even be that you are already struggling with massive amounts of debt. Regardless, the rest of the story is waiting to be scripted. Interestingly, you can either write your own script or just a few ignorant decisions and before you know it 10 -15, 20 years of your life has already been scripted by the need to repay.
Look ahead. Where do you want to be tomorrow? What needs to happen to your finances today so you get to choose your own story?
